Coin-operated registering mechanism.



PATENTRD JUNE 4, 1907. A. D. GROVER & E. E. BARBER. GOINOPERATBD REGISTERING MECHANISM.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 2, 1905.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

' WITNESSES- No. 855,850. 7 PATENTED JUNE 4, 1907. A. D. GROVER & E. E. BARBER.

COIN OPERATED REGISTERING MECHANISM.

APPLIOA'IION FILED MAR. 2. 1905.

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No. 855,850. PATENTED JUNE 4, 1907. A. D. GROVER & E. E. BARBER. COIN OPERATED REGISTERING MECHANISM.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. Z, 1905.

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UNITED srnrns nrnnr orricn.

ALBERT D. GROVER, OF MALDEN, AND EARL E. BARBER, OF BGSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

COIN-OPERATED REGISTERING MECHANISM.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented June 41-, 1907.

Application filed March 2, 1905. Serial No. 248,004.

To all 'LUhO'IIZ/ 2125 m/ty conce n:

Be it known that we, ALBERT D. Gnovnn, of Malden, county of Middlesex, and State of Massachusetts, and EARL E. BARBER, of Boston, county of Suffolk, and State of Massachusetts, citizens of the United States, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Coin-Operated Registering Mechanism, of which the following is a speci- Iication, reference being had to the drawings accompanying the same.

Our invention relates to means for locking a registering device in its normal operative position, for releasing the registering device when locked in its inoperative position or when locked in its operative position.

Our invention also relates to a device whereby the operating slide will remain unlocked after insertion of a coin of the proper denomination until it is desired to perform the work to be accomplished.

The objects of our invention are as follows: To produce a registering device having a small number of parts, that is simple in con struction, not liable to be clogged by matches, toothpicks and false tokens, and without the use of escapement and clock or spiral springs; to provide means that will release the operating slide and cause it to be locked again by the same coin or token; to provide means that will allow for a suflicient length of time to elapse between the unlocking and locking of the operating slide to permit the accomplisment of work to be performed; and to provide means whereby the operating slide will remain unlocked after the insertion of a coin of the proper denomination until it is desired to do the work to be performed.

In the drawings illustrating our invention which accompany this specificationFigure 1 is a front elevation of our improved registering mechanism, together with a sectional elevation of the coin retarding device, showing the operating slide locked in its nor mal inoperative position. Fig. 2 is a front elevation of our improved registering mechanism, showing the operating slide in its operative registering position, with the oper ating slide unlocked. Fig. 3 is a sectional plan View through line 3-3, Fig. 2. Fig. A is a sectional plan view through line 44, Fig. 2. Fig. 5 is a front elevation of the casing of a weighing scale to which our registering device is attached, showing scalespring, rod, pointer and dial.

In the drawings, 1 illustrates the frame upon which our registering mechanism is mounted; 2 represents the operating slide upon which is mounted the section of a rack 3 which is arranged to enmesh with the gear 4 which is mounted on the shaft 5 in such manner that the raising or lowering of the operating slide 2 will cause the shaft 5 to be revolved. Said shaft 5 may have mounted on its outer end at 6 the pointer 59 which is shown in Fig. 5.

7 is a bearing plate attached to the frame 1 by the screws 8, 8 in such manner as to extend inwardly and form the outboard hearing for the shaft 5 at the point 9. Said shaft 5 has an inner bearing 10 in the frame 1.

Mounted upon the operating slide 2 is a pawl 11, the point of which is adapted to ongage with teeth on the plate 12. Said plate 12 is attached to the frame 1 by the screws 13, 13. The pawl 11 has a small spring 14 mounted upon the pivot screw 15 in such manner as to hold the point of the pawl in engagement with the teeth on the plate 12. The pawl 1.1 has a wide face 16 adapted to be engaged by the oscillating lever 17; said lever 17 is pivoted upon the pivot screw 18. The said lever 17 is normally held in position shown in Fig. 1 by the spring 19. A wire 20 is attached to the horizontal end of the lever 17 and extends outwardly and has its end bent as shown in Fig. 4 in order that a coin inserted and dropped through the opening 21 may contact with its bent portion 22 and defleet it as shown in Fig. 2 to release the pawl 11 from contact with the teeth of the rack 12 in order that the operating slide 2 may be released.

Our registering mechanism is shown as designed to be used to register the weight of a person standing upon the platform of an automatic weighing scale. The lever 23 is at tached to the spindle 241, which in turn has a bearing in the plate 7 at one of its ends, and in the frame 1 at its other end.

25 is a spiral spring wound around the spindle 2 1, one of its ends being attached. to said spindle and its other to the plate 7, said spiral spring 25 having sufficient tension to overcome the weight of the wire 23 and hold it normally upward so that the portion 26 will be moved upwardly behind the lower end of the lever 17 to lock it when it is deflected as shown in Fig. 2 by a coin falling upon the transverse portion 22. The lever 17 is locked as shown in Fig. 2, while the coin is falling from the upper portion of the coin retarding device 27 to a point where it will contact with the portion 28 of the wire 23. The contact of the coin with the portion 28 of the wire 23 deflects it downward and withdraws the portion 26 from behind the lower end of the lever 17 to permit said lever to assume its normal position as shown in Fig. 1. to lock the operating slide against further downward movement.

29 represents ratchet teeth out in the side of the operating slide 2, and so arranged as to be adapted to engage with the point 30 of the pawl 31. l The pawl 31 is pivoted upon the pivot screw 32 in such manner as to readily swing back and forth in and out of engagement with the teeth 29.

33 is a link connecting the lower end of the lever 17 and the pawl 31 in such manner that any oscillating movement of said lever 17 will be communicated to said pawl 31. in such manner as to throw both the pawl 11 and the pawl 31 out of locking engagement at the same time, and thereby permit a free ver tical movement of the operating slide 2.

34 is a spindle secured to the bottom of the operating slide 2 and extends downward through the bearing 35 to contact with the top of the shell 36; 37 is a bracket attached to the movable platform of a weighing scale in. any suitable manner so as to be moved vertically with the movement of said platform. Said bracket has the portions 39 and 40 which serve for bearings for the shell 36. The rod 41 is attached to said shell 36 by being screw-threaded into it. Said shell 36 is so fitted in the bracket 39 that it can move freely vertically.

42 is a spiral spring bearing against the up per portion of the shell 36 at one end and the bracket 40 at its other end and serves to push said shell 36 and the operating slide 2 upwardly to their normal upward position.

43 is a rod which has a bearing in the portion 35 of the frame 1 at its lower end, and in the portion 44 at its upper end. A pin 45 is inserted in the lower end of said rod 43 in such manner as to form a bearing for the lower end of the spring 46, which spring bears against the bar 35 at its upper end and serves to hold said rod 43 in normal downward position. The pin 47 is inserted in the upper end of the rod 43 to limit its upward movement, and a pin 48 is inserted near the mid dle portion to limit its downward movement. The upper end of said rod 43 is made conical in shape and is adapted to contact with the pin 49 inserted in the lower end of the pawl 31, the purpose of which will be hereafter explained.

50 is a plate attached to the lower end of the frame 1 by suitable screws and extends upward to form a bearing at its upper end for the oscillating lever 51. Said. oscillating lever 51 has a fork at its outer end adapted to straddle the pin 52 so that any vertical movement of the rod 43 would oscillate said lever 51. The outer end of the lever 51 is forked and incloses the wire 53 which is secured to the trap-door 54. Said trap-door 54 closes the middle outlet in the plate 55 of the coin-chute 27 or opens it the case may be.

56 is a flat spring attached by a suitable screw to the upper portion. ofthe frame 1 and serves as a cushion for the operating slide 2 when it is moved upwardly by means of the shell 36 and the spring 58 is the scale-spring which is attached to the rod 57 at one of its ends, and to the casing at its other end.

The operation of our improved registering device when attached to a weighing scale is as follows Upon a coin or a proper token being inserted in the opening 21, it drops downwardly by gravity and contacts with the bent portion 22 of the lever 20, thereby oscillating the lever 17 to the left to cause its vertical portion to contact with the point 16 of the pawl 11, pressing said pawl 11 outwardly and out of contact with the teeth of the rack 12. Before dropping the coin in the slide, the person or object to be weighed takes position upon the platform of the scale, thereby deflecting the bracket 37 and the shell 36, permitting the operating slide 2 to move downwardly and revolve the shaft 5 through. means of the gear 4, and likewise any pointer attached. to said shaft. The coin in the meanwhile has traveled downwardly as shown in Fig. 2 until it contacts with the portion 28 of the wire 23. This deflects the portion 26 and unlocks the lever 17, thereby causing it to move out of contact with the pawl 11. and at the same time permits the pawl 11. to contact with the teeth 12, and the pawl 31 to contact with the teeth 29, thereby locking the operating slide 2 against both downward and upward movement, so that any additional weight put upon the platform of the scale would not cause further movement of the operating slide 2 and the shaft 5. hen the weight is taken from the platform it permits the bracket 37 to move upwardly and compress the spring 42 between said bracket and the shell 36, which shell 36 contacts with the rod 34 to move it upward when the slide is released; at the same time the upper portion of the bracket 37 contacts with the rod 43, moving it upward until its conical point contacts with the pin 49, which contact moves the pawl 31 out of contact with the teeth 29 and allows the operating slide 2 to be moved upwardly to its normal inoperative position as shown in Fig. 1.

.lever projecting into said coin chute in such In case a coin is dropped into the coin openin 21 before the weight or a person is in position upon the platform of the scale, the coin contacts with the bent end 22 and deflects the lever 20 downward, causing the vertical portion of the lever 17 to move to the left and contact with the point 16 of the pawl 11 to unlock the operating slide and permit it to move downward. The downward movement of the portion 20 and the oscillating movement of the portion 17 throws its lower end to the left sul'liciently to permit the portion 26 to move upwardly behind the lower end of said lever 17 and lock it in such position that the operating slide is unlocked and free to move vertically, but as no weight has been put upon the platform to deflect it the trap-door 54 intercepts and holds the coin, preventing it from moving downward and thereby holds the operating slide 2 in its unlocked position until weight has been put upon the platform of the scale to move the portion 37 downward and oscillate the lever 51 to throw the trap-door down as shown in Fig. 2, to permit the coin to fall downward and unlock said lever 17 through the medium of the wire 23 and allow it to assume its normal position as shown in Fig. 1.

The trap-door 54 and the lever 51 may or may not be used with our device, as its operation is not dependent upon said means.

Having described our invention and the best method now known to us in which to embody the same, what we claim is- 1. In a registering mechanism, a register .ing device; an operating slide to operate said registering device; a locking pawl mounted on the operating slide; a locking pawl mounted on the frame of the mechanism; a releasing lever adapted to unlock both said locking pawls; a coin chute, one end of said releasing manner as to unlock both locking pawls by a coin falling in said coin chute; means for locking said releasing lever in its releasing position to permit free vertical movement of, the operating slide; said locking means comprising a lever pivoted in the frame of the registering device; a lug mounted thereon adapted to contact with the releasing lever and a downwardly projecting portion normally located below the lower end of the coin chute so that a coin on dropping will contact with its lower end and unlock the releasing lever.

In a registering mechanism, a registering device; an operating slide adapted to operate said registering device; a locking pawl; a second locking pawl; releasing lever adapted to release both locking pawls; a coin chute into which one end of said releasing lever projects; means for locking said releasing lever in its operative position; means whereby a falling coin will unlock said locking means; and means in said coin chute for retard ng the fall of a com inserted therein.

3. In a registering mechanism, a rotative registering member; an operating slide for rotating said registering member; means for locking said operating slide against downward movement; means for locking said slide against upward movement; coin operated means for disengaging both locking means at the same time to permit free vertical movement of said operating slide; coin operated means for keeping the operating slide unlocked a given length of time; a: coin chute; means for retarding the fall of a coin in said coin chute for a determined length of time; and a vertical rod operated through the platform of a weighing scale for unlock ing the locking me ans to permit the operating slide to move upwardly to its normal posi tion.

1. In a coin operated registering mechanism, having a registering member; an operating slide f or operating said registering member; locking means for preventing the upward and downward movement of said operating slide; coin operated means to unlock both said locking means; coin operated means for retaining said unlocking means in its operative position; a trap door in the coin. chute for preventing the fall of a coin therefrom; and means operated by the platform of a weighing scale to open said trap door when weight is placed upon the platform of the scale to permit the coin to fall downward in the chute.

5. In a coin-operated registering mechanism, moans for indicating the work accomplished put in operative condition by the weight of a coin; a coin chute; means for retaining the coin in the coin chute until the work is tLCOOHl'PllSllGd; a spring operated sliding shaft for releasing the coin from the coin chute; means whereby the fall of the coin releases the indicating slide looking mechanism; and said slide locking mechanism.

6. Ina coin operated registering mechanism, a frame; indicating means mounted in said frame; an operating slide mounted in said frame; a locking pawl mounted on said slide; a rack having ratchet teeth mounted on the frame; ratchet teeth forn'led in said operating slide; a locking pawl mounted on the frame and adapted to engage said teeth; spring operated means mounted in the frame adapted to disengage said pawl; a coin operated releasing lever mounted on said frame and arranged to unlock both said pawls and spring operated means for returning the operating slide to its normal position.

7. In a coin operated registering mechanism. a frame; indicating means mounted in said frame; an operating slide; ratchet teeth in. said operating slide; a pawl mounted on the frame arranged to engage said ratchet IIC teeth; a rack having ratchet teeth mounted on the frame; a pawl mounted on the operatingslide arranged to engage the ratchet teeth in said rack; and Zneitns for causing both said pmvls to engage and be disengaged from sci 1 ratchet teeth.

In Witness whereof, we have hereunto set our hands, in. the presence of two subscribing essese witnesses, this the twentieth day of February, A. D. 1905.

ALBERT D. GROVER.

g EARL BARBER.

itnesses R. P. ELLIOT'I,

L U. M. KELSO. 

